Month: October 2011

Well folks, October 26th, 2011 is certainly a day that will go down in history. After the Blaster in Charge yelled “fire in the hole!” and ignited the charges, the White Salmon was explosively set free for the first time in 100 years. The lake took less than 2 hours to drain, carrying an incredible amount of sediment and debris downstream to the Columbia. Now, a more gradual process begins–the erosion of millions of cubic yards of trapped silt, the return of threatened salmon and ultimately the complete removal of Condit Dam.

Enjoy these photos and video from breach day and stay tuned for more updates as the sediment erodes and the White Salmon re-carves its course. And check out this National Geographic News story, where the breach video first appeared.

What a powerful few days it’s been. I’m exhausted, elated and very excited to see what’s in store for the White Salmon in the coming months. While I finally catch up on some sleep, enjoy this video clip that I put together for National Geographic that includes video and timelapse imagery.

Yesterday was incredibly powerful and almost unbelievable. Within seconds of the blast, the White Salmon burst through Condit Dam and Northwestern Lake, the reservoir behind the dam, was drained within an hour — much faster than anyone had anticipated.

I spent much of last night and this morning wading through the incredible amount of images that I was able to capture with our cameras and my computers are still cranking through the rest. I’ll be posting more images and video later this afternoon, but until then here are a few photos to whet your appetite.

We’ve been up since 5a.m. setting up the cameras. Working quickly because we only have a short time to make sure the system is ready to go… and because we’re so excited. Today’s the day. At noon Pacific, 3p.m. Eastern, crews will blast a tunnel into the base of Condit Dam, effectively freeing the White Salmon for the first time in a century.

We’ll be posting photos and video as soon as possible, so stay tuned… but you can catch the live stream of the Condit blast on the American Rivers website. Get excited. It’s a landmark day and it’s time to celebrate!

An eerie calm has settled over Condit Dam. All of the heavy equipment and scaffolding has been removed and the barge pulled out of the lake. The workforce has been paired down and there is almost no activity around the dam. It appears that the JR Merit team and their crew of contractors is nearly ready for the explosive breach tomorrow at noon. Their attention has turned to safety and crowd control, while our small media crew is in full gear preparing a complex multi-camera shoot. For everyone involved, years of planning will come down to one explosive moment tomorrow at noon.

Let me introduce you to Larry Moran. Tomorrow, Larry will be in a helicopter patrolling the dam site and the area of river between the dam and the Columbia. If Larry sees anyone in the area, he will shut down the blast until a team of local police can locate and remove the person. The man has eyes like and eagle and isn’t messing around–I’m not sure I’d want him to be mad at me. According to Larry, the concussive force of the blast will be strong enough to make your ears bleed if you’re close enough to watch it in person. I also certainly wouldn’t really want to be responsible for the dam breach being postponed, because I’d have to answer to a lot more folks than Larry.

To satisfy the public’s desire to watch the blast, PacifiCorp has set up a live webcast of the breach and will be announcing the URL on their website on Wednesday at 11am. There’s also a long list of parties to choose from, compiled on the Wet Planet blog.

This request is coming straight from me: Please do not try to hike in to watch the blast or the rush of water in person. Selfishly, our cameras are set on timers, and long delays could mean that we miss the blast from some angles. In addition to Larry and hundreds of other folks who have worked very hard on this, I’ll not be happy. The entire river corridor will be closed from the dam to the Columbia, so please stay clear!

Our plan for shooting the blast is complex and exciting:

Our two long-term time-lapse camera stations (equipped with Canon T2is) will be shooting one JPG frame every 3 seconds all day

A second still camera (Canon 1D Mark 4) will be shooting 1 RAW frame per second for 45 minutes starting 5 minutes before the blast

Two video cameras–a Sony FS100 and a Sony EX1–will each be shooting HD video for about 8 hours starting at 10am

Steve and I will both be mobile with Canon 5Ds

We’ll be the only ones shooting high quality still images of the blast at this tight of a sequence, and we’re excited to see what we get! All photography is being made possible by intervalometers with an internal real-time clock, allowing us to shoot sequences of images at specific times of the day. After setup, the cameras will be on their own until the end of the day.

Check back first thing Thursday morning for the first images from the breach. I’m more excited than anyone to see them, so I’ll be sure to process them quickly and get them out. If you’re interested in using images, please email me.

The anticipation along the White Salmon is palpable. River enthusiasts are chomping at the bit to see what new whitewater they have to explore, scientists are on the edge of their seats to see what happens to the millions of cubic yards of trapped sediment, concerned local residents are anxious to see whether their worst fears are realized. Me? I just hope all my cameras work.

In this video I recently produced, I check in with two local residents to learn what they’re looking forward to. Heather Herbeck works for Wet Plantet, a local raft company, and is excited to explore the new whitewater in her backyard. Phyllis Clausen, 30 year resident of Trout Lake, WA, is excited to see a project she’s poured her heart and soul into finally come to fruition.

What about you? What are you looking forward to seeing, learning or experiencing when Condit is breached in two weeks and the lake is drained?

While the countdown continues to the breach of Condit Dam on October 26th, another huge dam removal project is progressing on the Olympic Peninsula’s Elwha River. The removal of two dams on the Elwha is being called the largest river restoration event in history–involving the removal of two massive dams to restore salmon and steelhead spawning habitat cut off for nearly 100 years.

The project appears to be progressing well–with water now flowing over or around both structures.

The two dams on the Elwha are being removed gradually over a 3-year period, with breaks taken in the project during particularly sensitive times for salmon and steelhead. It will be interesting to keep and eye on the Elwha to see how this slower removal process compares to the more rapid approach planned for Condit.

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About the Project

Two remote cameras stationed around Condit Dam will be shooting still images every day for the next several years. When stitched together as a video sequence, these images will provide a never before seen view of large-scale dam removal and river recovery. We'll be posting updates as the project develops, so stay tuned!

Image Usage Information

All images that appear on this site are copyright 2011 Andy Maser & Steve Stampfli unless otherwise noted. Any use of images, video or timelapse video clips is prohibited without permission.